Know 50, know the world

As of the 23rd May 2022 this website is archived and will receive no further updates.

understandinguncertainty.org was produced by the Winton programme for the public understanding of risk based in the Statistical Laboratory in the University of Cambridge. The aim was to help improve the way that uncertainty and risk are discussed in society, and show how probability and statistics can be both useful and entertaining.

Many of the animations were produced using Flash and will no longer work.

At a dinner in France where I knew only the convening couple and my husband, there was much argument about the idea that, if you know 50 people, you have contact with the world. I leant across the table to the man opposite (British) who I had met for the first time that evening and I asked where he was born. "Oh you won't know the place. A small town in England". "Try me". "Westcliff-on-Sea" "Oh yes, I know the place. What's the date of your birth?" Date given. "And where in Westcliff were you born?" "A small nursing home" "Name?" I was born on the same day in the same place, in the same nursing home.
Total votes: 167
Date submitted:Tue, 17 Jan 2012 14:39:10 +0000Coincidence ID:5366